Dogs, cats, and other companion animals have a beneficial impact on our health, and it’s no surprise that they are often considered to be four-legged family members rather than just service animals. Some people seek emotional support from these animals, while others benefit from them as service animals.
However, many people use the terms service animal, therapy animal, or emotional support animal interchangeably, without understanding the real differences between these types of animals. Here, we will explain the differences between emotional support animals and service animals.
Service Animals:
According to state laws, only dogs are legally considered as service animals. In the United States, you can also train your own service animal.
Service animals are specially trained to perform tasks for disabled persons. They are also known as helper animals or assist animals. Although various animals, such as birds, horses, and cats, can serve as service animals, dogs are the most common. There are three categories of assistance animals. The first category is a guide animal for the blind, the second category is the hearing animal, which signals the hearing-impaired, and the third category is the service animal, which works for persons with disabilities other than deafness or blindness.
Tasks Performed by Service Animal
According to the Fair Housing Act in United States, the buyer or renter is protected from landlord or seller discrimination based on race, familial status, religion or disability. Under this law, homeowner’s association must provide the reasonable accommodation to enjoy and use the dwelling with their animals.
Tasks performed by the service animal are associated with the person disability. Here are some examples of the tasks performed by the assist animal.
- Pulling a wheelchair for disabled person.
- Retrieving the dropped items for handicapped individuals.
- Alerting person to a sound.
- Giving reminder to a person to take medications.
- Pressing an elevator button for impaired individual.
- There are some diabetic alert dogs who detect low blood sugar level and alert their handlers.
Things You Should Know About Service Animals
- Service animal is not supposed to wear markings or livery. However, some handlers opt to do so.
- These animals are assessed on the basis of their right temperament.
- These animals are trained by trained professionals to learn their daily tasks. They can perform multitude tasks.
- Assist animals are authorized to have accommodations where other animals would not commonly be allowed. Being said that if handlers are allowed to move freely in public places, so are service animals. Some of the hosting include restaurants, hotels, or restaurants.
- These animals do not require service animal registration or certification.
Emotional Support Animal
Support animal is the one companion pet which provides benefits to the emotionally disordered individuals. Typically, these animals are dogs, sometime cats or may be other animal. They are truly effective in treating the individuals with trauma, depression or anxiety. According the US housing, only the physiologically disabled individuals who cannot tackle with the anxiety, panic attacks, or depressive disorder are liable to have emotional support animal.
Being said that emotional support animals do not qualify as service animals under ADA but they are qualified for reasonable accommodations under the FHA. In cases where a person is disabled and want to use emotional support animal and hosting may include waiving a pet-deposit or no-pet rule. Therefore, Quincy property management companies follow the ADA emotional support animal guidelines and ask the homeowners and tenants to follow the rules and regulations in such exceptional cases.
Things You Should Know About Emotional Support Animal (ESA)
Federal law shared some requirements where landlords are required to allow their tenants to have emotional support animals in housing or air travel. However, airline and landlords can pre-requisite the official letter from mental health professional. For some instances supporting documentation from veterinarian records and obedient records can be asked for and asked that they be maintained.
There is no any central database of registration of ESAs in the nation. Hence, it is difficult to find the exact number of emotional support animals in the state. The legal status of emotional support animals is poorly defined. They are not obliged to perform specific tasks but support emotionally. There is no limitation of being disabled to have an ESA but you need to show that emotional support animal alleviates one or more of the observed symptoms like anxiety, and emotional disturbance. No training is required for emotional support animals.
There is a complete different set of requirements under the FHA and emotional support animals’ laws. Unlike service animals, ESAs cannot go everywhere with their person. You must have a legitimate mental diagnosis and ESA alleged necessary by the licensed psychotherapist before you can move around the town. If ESA is allowed in University housing, it is only approved for a student who wants support in mental health disability.
However, if we talk about their accommodation under the ACA act, they must be entitled to have accommodation on aircraft. It would be great if their handlers show documentation to allow them fly in cabin for free. Emotional support animals aren’t required to wear livery nor do they need emotional support animal certification.
These were some of the differences between an emotional support animal and a service animal. We hope you are clear about the differentiation. If you have a service animal or emotional support animal and are looking for property managers on Cape Cod, you can get in touch with us.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
